=================================
THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER
Your Link to Freedom, Prosperity & Privacy in the Offshore World
Wednesday, August 28, 2002 - Vol. 4 No. 86
=================================
In This Issue:
* COMMENT: EU Wants to Eavesdrop
* OFFSHORE: Bahamas: reforms reconsidered. Hard times in offshore banking. Secret deal on Gibraltar. Bermuda insurance boom unsustainable.
* WEALTH: Big bailouts are back. Australia: proposed tax revisions. Zimbabwe: Pressure increases on Mugabe. USA to change the tax treatment of dividends?
* PRIVACY & RIGHTS: No privacy in US calling records. New scanner sees through clothes. Secret deportation hearings overturned. Security threats to Internet banking.
*******************ADVERTISEMENT*******************
Prevent Threats to Your Assets.
Today, the threats to your assets are even greater than ever before. Frivolous litigation, burdensome government regulation, taxes, and loss of privacy are only a few of the assaults you face daily. Retired litigation attorney David Tanzer shares with you the steps you can take now to protect and preserve your assets in the book and video set "How to Legally Protect Your Assets".
LINK: https://www.DavidTanzer.com/Sovsoc.asp
=================================
Our guest commentator is MARK NESTMANN, Editorial Director of The Sovereign Society.
Bob Bauman, A-Letter Editor
=================================
* COMMENT: EU Wants to Eavesdrop
Dear A-Letter Reader:
The European Union is denying reports that it is planning to eavesdrop on private e-mails, faxes and phone calls.
Baloney. Just two months ago, under immense pressure from the US, the European Parliament approved a law that allows member states to force Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and telephone companies to retain data on their customers. And just last week, Denmark, the current holder of the rotating EU presidency, said it was consulting with other EU member states on how to standardize data retention rules.
According to the civil liberties watchdog group Statewatch, if Brussels has its way, the EU will soon be able to store records of who their citizens call, fax or email for up to two years. (Since August 1, this has been the law in one EU country--the UK.) Another measure in the pipeline will allow police and intelligence access to the content as well as the traffic data of communications.
In theory, police will still need a judicial order to trawl through these records--although this has never stopped intelligence agencies in the UK and possibly other EU countries from getting access, as demonstrated in hearings last year over the US "ECHELON" global surveillance system.
Until the crucial vote in the European Parliament two months ago, the only purpose for which traffic data could be retained was for billing. Then it had to be erased. If police or intelligence agencies needed access to the traffic data of a particular individual or group, they could apply for a court order foraccess.
In addition, there are:
* No grounds for refusing to refuse surveillance on human rights grounds
* No limits as to what data can be exchanged
* No provision for targeted individuals to correct, delete, block data nor compensation for misuse or for related judicial review
* No controls on the copying of data or the leaking of potentially
embarrassing details to the press.
* No rules for checking on the admissibility of data searches
It is one thing to permit police and intelligence agencies reasonable access to telephone, e-mail and Internet browsing records of individuals or groups when there is probable cause to believe that they are involved in criminal or terrorist activity. It is quite different to hold the traffic data of the whole population of the EU on record for two years or more. As Statewatch points out, "It is a move from targeted surveillance to potentially universal surveillance."
That's the way that it looks from here.
Mark Nestmann
=============================
COMMENT LINKS:
* EU denies plans to store private telecom data. LINK:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=2350888
&thesection=technology&thesubsection=general
* Statewatch report: Surveillance of communications. LINK:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2002/aug/05datafd1.htm
* EU: data retention to be "compulsory" for 12-24 months (draft Framework
Decision leaked to Statewatch. LINK:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2002/aug/analy11.pdf
* ECHELON: The US global surveillance system. LINK:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4193296,00.html
* Data retention a reality in the UK. LINK:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-03633.html
* New surveillance rules will bankrupt many telecoms. LINK:
http://media.guardian.co.uk/city/story/0,7497,779184,00.html
=================================
* OFFSHORE *
BAHAMAS WILL RECONSIDER CORPORATE REFORMS. NASSAU. New government will review reforms demanded by wealthy countries to reign in "harmful tax competition" that have led to economic collapse. LINK:
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com
/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1028186044194&p=1012571727102
----
OFFSHORE BANKING HITTING "HARD TIMES?" GENEVA. Layoffs at
Swiss banks. LINK:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/24/business/worldbusiness/24SWIS.html
(free registration required)
* Deposits in Guernsey fall. LINK:
http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=9188
-----
SECRET DEAL ON GIBRALTAR. BRUSSELS. Spain intends to announce an as-yet unreleased agreement to coincide with a referendum on sovereignty in Gibraltar. LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=9156
* Gibraltar Labour party calls for tax cuts for individuals. LINK:
http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=9183
----
BERMUDA INSURANCE BOOM UNSUSTAINABLE. LONDON. New report from A.M. Best doubts Bermuda's staying power due to "a lack of local intellectual resources and office space." LINK:
http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=9192
*******************ADVERTISEMENT*******************
RETIRE LIKE A MILLIONAIRE!
We know of nine destinations right now where you could live better...safer...freer...for less...no matter what your age.
Let us show you how to escape to paradise...retire like a millionaire on $16,800 a year...earn an $80,000 tax exemption by living overseas... rent in the Caribbean for only $200 a month...or buy a 1/2 acre lot for $30,000. Interested in a road map to your new life in Paradise? Click here.
LINK: http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/120SROS/W120C8S7/
=================================
* WEALTH *
BIG BAILOUTS ARE BACK. WASHINGTON, D.C. The International Monetary Fund recently gave Brazil a US$30 billion loan last week, paid for by taxpayers in IMF member countries, despite the spectacular collapse of Argentina's economy after a huge bailout in 2001. LINK:
http://www.cato.org/dailys/08-23-02.html
* Enron admits it's really Argentina (satire). LINK:
http://www.satirewire.com/news/0111/enron.shtml
-----
AUSTRALIA MULLS REVISED TAX LAWS. HONG KONG. Elimination of double taxation on dividends, more favorable treatment of expatriates, among measures considered. LINK:
http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=9181
-----
PRESSURE INCRASES ON TYRANT MUGABE. LONDON. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair urges South Africa to help curb Robert Mugabe's reign of terror in Zimbabwe. LINK:
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/
StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1028186003905&p=1012571727102
-----
US TO CHANGE THE TAX TREATMENT OF DIVIDENDS?
WASHINGTON, D.C. Bush proposal to eliminate triple taxation of dividends will go a long way toward rationalizing US Tax Code. LINK:
http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?id=020822000698
=================================
* PRIVACY & RIGHTS *
US TELEPHONE RECORDS OPEN TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER.
WASHINGTON, D.C. Unless you explicitly "opt-out," your home, office and cellular dialing records can now be sold to anyone. LINKS:
http://nashville.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2002/08/26/smallb4.html
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-224366A1.pdf
-----
NEW SCANNER SEES THROUGH CLOTHES. RICHLAND, WASH. A
recently developed holographic imaging device that could be used for anti- terrorism applications provides the most explicit view yet. LINK:
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,54598,00.html
-----
BUSH CAN'T HOLD SECRET DEPORTATION HEARINGS. CINCINNATI,
OHIO. Federal appeals court says the administration illegally deported hundreds of suspected terrorists. LINK:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64994-2002Aug26.html
• Court decision. LINK:
http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/6th/02a0291p.html&friend=nytimes
----
COMPUTER EXPERT PENETRATES MICROSOFT SOFTWARE USED FOR INTERNET BANKING AND E-COMMERCE. STOCKHOLM.
Customer accounts at Sweden's largest banks, and perhaps in other countries, are at risk. LINK:
http://reuters.com/news_article.jhtml;jsessionid=
XQBIJXBVVKLMICRBAEKSFEY?type=search&StoryID=1373917#
=================================
THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER.
* SUBSCRIBE FREE or send to a friend at
LINK: HOME
PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND DIRECTLY TO THE A-LETTER.
SEND E-MAIL TO: INFO@THESOVEREIGNSOCIETY.COM
=================================
THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY Ltd., 5 Catherine St., Waterford, Ireland
TEL: 353-51 844 068 FAX: 353-51 304 561
Copyright (C) 2002. All domestic & international rights reserved.